Dismissed Players Take Aim at New York Philharmonic Misconduct Inquiry

Mr. Muckey’s complaint describes the case as “the epitome of the #MeToo movement gone awry.” In the lawsuit, he said he had provided Ms. Levy with Facebook messages from one of his accusers, identified as “C.S.” in the lawsuit. He said that the woman, whom he met at a party in 2008, consented to their sexual encounters. The lawsuit includes a message from the woman in which she wrote: “Awwww you’re really the best 😊 thanks for everything, yes, even the sex.”

Mr. Wang’s amended lawsuit says that he was not given enough information about the accusations against him to respond. The lawsuit says that one of his accusers was someone with whom Mr. Wang had a long-term, consensual relationship.

The investigation of Mr. Muckey and Mr. Wang followed the publication of the New York magazine article, in which Cara Kizer, a former Philharmonic horn player, came forward for the first time to publicly discuss an encounter she said occurred while on tour with the Philharmonic in Vail, Colo., in 2010.

She told the Vail Police Department at the time that she believed she had been sexually assaulted after spending the evening with Mr. Muckey and Mr. Wang at a condo the two men were sharing. She said she was given a drink she came to believe was drugged, according to police records, but she did not have a specific recollection of what had happened then. No charges were filed against the men, who both denied wrongdoing. Mr. Muckey said the sex had been consensual. Mr. Wang argues in his suit that Ms. Kizer never accused him of misconduct.

In 2018 the Philharmonic commissioned an investigation and moved to dismiss Mr. Muckey and Mr. Wang on disciplinary grounds — a so-called just cause termination. The conduct cited in Mr. Wang’s case involved another musician, not Ms. Kizer. After Local 802 challenged their dismissals, an arbitrator forced the orchestra to reinstate them.

Last fall, when the Philharmonic moved again to dismiss Mr. Muckey and Mr. Wang, the union, in a striking reversal, did not object.

In their lawsuits on Thursday, Mr. Muckey and Mr. Wang revived their complaints against Local 802, accusing the union of failing to provide them fair representation. They said the union should have objected to the Philharmonic’s decision to invoke a little-known provision in the labor agreement known as a “non-reengagement” clause to dismiss them. They said the Philharmonic’s decision not to pursue a just cause termination reflected weaknesses in the case.